Mojgan (Misha)

This is Mojgan, an artist in Florence who, to make things easier on the rest of the world, calls herself Misha. We met on via Calzaiuoli. There are a few well-known things about her: she is very talented, likes the impressionists and the music of Ravel and Respighi, has an extremely pleasant personality, her lucky number is TWO, her favorite dish is Gazane, she misses Doogh (which she cannot find in Italy), plans to travel the world and her favorite animal is the cat. There is one fact that nobody knows about her (Misha herself is not aware of this either): she is one of the very few people in the world born with a secret, magical component that will reveal itself at some given time in the future and make Misha unbearably lucky if she keeps a pure heart. Misha is very happy to chat with passers-by if they buy her art or not.

Grigoriy Belkowsky

This is Grigoriy (Grisha) Belkowsky from Rehovot, he was born in Dnepropetrovsk and, after obtaining a Master Degree in Metallurgy, went to live with his sister Klara in Israel where he changed his name to Avigdor Lavan. He had a dream: to figure out the secret of cymbal technology that made Sabian and Zildjian the best in the world. Klara had inherited a Coca-Cola distribution deal that gave him access to an unlimited supply of Diet Coke to which he became addicted at the level of ten to twelve cans a day while studying and experimenting with bronze and brass alloys and writing letters applying for a job at either of the two cymbal companies. One night, about six years ago, all of Grisha's teeth fell out without any warning. The doctors were puzzled as all tests came back normal and not knowing what else to do, they advised him to stop drinking that stuff. Four months later all the teeth grew back. He sued the Coca-Cola company, was offered a cash settlement and asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement. He refused and the lawsuit is now slowly winding its way through various levels of courts in the US, Canada, Turks and Caicos and many other jurisdictions. Grisha now only drinks water and has a part-time job teaching percussion at the Rehovot Conservatory of Music.

Karl-Heinz Hammermüller

This is Karl-Heinz Hammermüller from Kleinzell, Lilienfeld, Lower Austria, a bookbinder by trade. He is known and recognized as one of the best in the business and I met him in Florence where he was the keynote speaker at the Conference on Gilding and Inking Edges. Karl-Heinz is permanently agitated and aggressively motivated: when he walks, he pushes people out of his way, shouts at them and, if they are visible minorities, he tells them to go back to "their country". His family secretly puts ground up Extraveral pills into the "Primitivo di Puglia", the only wine he drinks (the "ripe plum, vanilla, and tobacco"  bouquet hides the bitter taste) as he refuses to go to see somebody about his condition. Herr Hammermüller was twice detained for disorderly conduct and once arrested for causing a disturbance. He lives with his wife, two daughters and a pet Bolivian Python in a large house-workshop on the outskirts of town (they also have two dogs).

Giovanni Francesco Sanminiatelli

This is Count Giovanni Francesco Sanminiatelli, he was born in Pisa on February 13th, 1814 and (supposed to have) died on August 21st, 1869 in Florence.  During his life he had many accomplishments: he was named a Knight of Saint Stephen and became a great expert in ecclesiastical law even sitting as a judicial vicar - as such he decided to excommunicate a certain Paolino Certarossa (Siena 1868) based on statements by two different witnesses that Paolino is involved in sorcery and black magic. Exactly one year later the Count died but his body mysteriously dissolved in a green puff of smoke before the eyes of the grieving family (who decided to avoid the scandal, keep this a secret and proceed with a closed-casket funeral). Giovanni's tortured spirit is condemned to forever inhabit disgusting mannequins in middle-Tuscany and area (just guessing here: Paolino wasn't entirely innocent). I tracked down his latest appearance in a window of a store on Via de'Tornabuoni 73, Florence.

Amilcare Clark

Amilcare Oreste Clark was the successful owner of the popular and successful high-end Hotel Imperiale at Via Veneto 24, in Rome. Almost nine years ago, in an epic 24-hour card game with some Russian millionaire guests, he lost it all. Due to his excellent classical education received as a boy, he finds occasionally work as a tour guide. His family obtained a judicial order that forbids him to own credit cards, take out bank loans or have more than 150 Euro in cash on him at any time. Amilcare is not bitter, he is a philosopher: when he is depressed (which is often), he goes on to the balcony of the small apartment on via Salaria he rents from his cousin Giorgio Garozzo and smokes his pipe. Giorgio is the only one in the family who still talks to Amilcare.

Jolanta Gulbis

This is Jolanta Gulbis of Udine, Friuli as I met her in front of the church of San Gaetano in Florence. Her parents were born in Riga, Latvia and escaped in the early eighties from the Soviet communist terror to settle in Boston where Jolanta was born. They started a successful business of buying and selling stuff and making pots of money, quickly retired to Udine where they bought land, cows, goats and started to make cheese. This turned out to be another family triumph. Now they have a bakery downtown called "Le Konditoreja" where they sell their cheeses and make buns ... the most popular is the "Royale with Cheese". Jolanta is deeply and secretly in love with Raffaelo Brunetti, son of a policeman.

Loris Cecchini

I met Loris today when I went to the opening of his latest piece high on the walls of a Florence luxury hotel (the piece "Waterbones" was high on the wall, not the opening)  http://www.artribune.com/mostre-evento-arte/loris-cecchini-waterbones-3/
I must say he seems to be is at the high end of the success-in-art-rainbow ... Paris, London, Berlin as well as Beijing and Shanghai. Our conversation was briefly interrupted by his two adorable daughters (five and seven - their respective ages, not their names) who wanted his phone and money for gelato (he, of course, gave them both). I asked how it felt to win the Pomodoro Sculpture Prize and he retreated into (what I thought was uncharacteristic) modesty. For another few minutes we smiled a lot and promised each-other we'll keep in touch, but before I left, I remembered how an old Maitre d' taught me to gauge the success of a person: look at their shoes! Loris' handmade stingray-leather shoes appeared to be more expensive than my car!

Jin Hyon An

This is Jin Hyon An, she makes high-end mattresses from recycled plastic bottles in a small workshop on the upper floor of an old industrial building on via Tripoli, in Florence. They are superb, costly and in high demand with an order backlog of eight months but Jin herself makes very little money for her hard work. Her fiancee,  Sebastiano Piombo, got her a job as a prep-cook at La Minerva where he is a sous-chef. Jin experimented at home perfecting a white-bean salad with balsamic vinegar and a virgin olive oil - parsley - white pepper foam with a secret ingredient (nutmeg). Sebastiano took the recipe to the restaurant as his own creation and got it on the menu with great praise from the head chef. Jin got mad (like hopping Korean, white-hot furious mad) and threw him out of their apartment ... she suspected for a while that Sebastiano is cheating on her anyway.

Alistair Y Stowe

This is Alistair Y. Stowe, he reads books ... mostly books he has read before. The most recent book he gave a first-read was Albrecht Drechsler's "Tremor of the Almonds" (Knopf, New York, 2015) which won the "Gloesner" that year. He had an excellent public school education followed by reading Art and History at Cambridge. For a while, after graduation, he joined an organization dedicated to putting things on top of other things, but then he went back to reading books. Alistair has always been confused about his sexuality until that unusually warm 1990 November night in Prenzlauer Berg (Berlin) when in a small bar he met Elke Pfaff. What Elke did to him, first in the alley behind the bar and then, for the rest of the night in her Bornholmer Strasse apartment, left Alistair confused noch mehr - even more.

Alessa, Ariane and Azucena

These are the Valderrama sisters from Arequipa, Peru. They help their grandmother run a popular bed and breakfast called "Casa de Mi Abuela". The story of why they are now in Florence, how they got here and what they plan to do tomorrow is so bizarre, that nobody would believe it even if I would explain it in detail and show proof (which I cannot, as the three swore me to secrecy). I don't think I betray their trust and break my word when I just say that it involves avocado, three peppercorns, a highly polished brass doorknob and a man called Dan.

Ambra (We called her Amber)

This is Ambra an archeologist in Rome. She told us to call her Amber (I am not making this up). She took us through her underground site bubbling over with enthusiasm and boiling over with pride. Forty-five minutes into the half-hour tour, she said "Shit, I think I talk too much" we encouraged her to go on as she was just getting to the entertaining bits of treason, poisoning, rape, mutilation, fratricide, parricide other management tools, methods and processes of Imperial Rome. We thought there was a trace of a Gaelic accent, but she said there wouldn't be a reason. Amber wanted to study Astronomy but her mom decided for something with job security (archeologist in Rome); she is very superstitious, never wears pink on Wednesdays, only drinks red wine, loves 60's R&B and hopes one day to go to San Francisco to see the Golden Bridge, her favorite.

Zisa Alabaeva

Zisa Alabaeva lives in Rome where she obtained an MBA from the local Sapienza University. One night, a few years ago, she weighed then about eighty pounds more than now, Zisa took home a small, funny Englishman with a heavy London accent who called himself Ben. Before he left next morning, the guy made a very fancy drawing on her bathroom wall. Turned out later, it was Banksy. Zisa is currently the Lulu-Lemon Marketing Director for Southern Italy and once, in a Yoga competition, held the Natarajasana for 28 minutes and fifty-two seconds, a record I believe.

Lookah Cucinelli

This is Lookah ("I live on the second floor") Cucinelli, she is a superbly talented but also obscenely well-paid developer for Kaspersky, who told her she can live anywhere there is fast and secure infrastructure and an international airport close by - she chose Florence. There is almost no trace of Lookah on the Internet, she uses her great-aunt Zinnia's profile for her monthly donations of $500 each to the UN Refugee Fund, Amnesty International, and WWF, she is a vegan, never owned a TV or a car or anything pink. Lookah has sex once a week, on Wednesday at one AM, when Sebastiano Piombo (not his real name) finishes his shift as a sous-chef at La Minerva. Lookah is not sure if she is happy.

Andrej Malenkov

This is Andrej and Larissa Malenkov from Nijnii Novgorod. I met them close to the Ponte Vecchio having the time of their lives. Andrej drives a cab and a couple of months ago took a fare from the hotel to the station. He got into his car to go back to town when he noticed a black plastic case with a couple of dozen memory cards marked with recent dates. He ran into the station where his brother-in-law, Ivan Denisovich, was second station master and asked him to call the train. Ivan contacted the conductor who found one horribly hung-over photo reporter sleeping it off in an empty first-class compartment. He woke him up and showed him the picture of the case with the memory cards sent to him ... the guy almost had a heart attack. Andrej used DHL to courier the box to the hotel in Rostov, where the reporter went next and got a wire for a thousand Euros in his name. The money was enough to replace the transmission in his aging Honda (his idea) or for a four-day trip to Florence (Larissa's idea). Andrej hated eating pizza from cardboard boxes but loved taking selfies with his wife.

Coutney Arnoth

This is Courtney Arnoth and her sister Cee of Fredericton, New Brunswick. They visit Florence with their parents to soak up the classical Renaissance at the source. We met in the Palazzo Strozzi, where they currently show "The Florence Experiment" which studies the interaction between plants and humans using two monumental slides that take visitors from the 60 ft. high loggia down to the courtyard. What the curator (Arturo Galansino) did not consider is the powerful sexual tension produced by the particular configuration of the spiraling slides and the effect it has on girls on the cusp of puberty. Courtney and Cee found a way to relieve themselves.

Florence Yu

This is Florence Yu. She lives in Barrie, Ontario but comes to Florence, Italy several times a year as a buyer for a big, high-end leather goods chain in Canada. Whenever in town, she enjoys two things most: gelato from "Gelateria dei Neri" on via dei Neri and her nights with her boyfriend Gino Bernardo, a local painter.  We only have pictures of the first on our files. Flo's husband, Bill Yu, knows about the gelato and plans, one day, to take time off work and come to Florence with Florence.

Vercole Honeocus

This is Vercole Honeocus, he made fun of and stole from some ugly minor Roman god (whose name I even cannot remember)... he ran away as fast as he could to escape punishment (traditionally you turn to stone) but would have gone eve

n faster had he had a bike. Now he's got a bike but goes nowhere fast.

Danae Brobovski

I have met Danae in the ancient church of Santa Maria in Aracoeli. Danae is a successful professional bridesmaid and dance-instructor ... most of her time she dedicates to her long-running lawsuit against her cousins and uncles over an inheritance that includes an antique shotgun that once belonged to Wilhelm Tell.

Ilona Andreucci-Gilista

I have met Ilona Andreucci-Gilista visiting the Castel San'Angelo. Ilona runs a small pharmacy with her wife Gebe. They have two boys, one plays the accordion since he was two and the other had an infected thumb that kept him off the volleyball team for the regional finals.

zeroKlum

This is zeroKlum, a nonbinary person, using pronouns "one" and "them". We met in Perugia, zero wants to be famous at any costs, and once, sat naked on a donkey in Piazza Verbano for three hours under the moonlight. The police were called but couldn't do anything as them told them that it is a freedom of expression. The donkey's name was Benito.

Meduza Petrescu

This is Meduza Petrescu, she teaches high school physics in Focșani, Romania. Her actual name is Luminița Petrescu, but her students named her Meduza due to her stony stare and harsh treatment of those who fall behind in studies. I met Meduza in the beautiful church of Santa Maria Del Fiori (the Duomo) in Florence when we attended the astronomical summer solstice traced on the six-hundred-year-old markings on the cathedral marble floor and explained by Professore Alberto Righini. Meduza travels the world during her summer vacation, as her current boyfriend is an airline pilot who takes her to where-ever he flies. The pilot has a slight speech impediment but cooks most excellently and flies to exotic destinations.

Adelina Rasioli

Adelina Rasioli was born in Ravena but lived most of her life in Florence. We met on the train to Florence actually. She is an unhappy woman who peaked early after which not a lot exciting has happened in her life. On Friday 1st of May 1970, (she was seventeen and a half) she slept with Simon & Garfunkel after their show in Paris, at the L'Olympia. She is quick to point out that it was Garfunkel first and then Simon. Later, Adelina became a bookkeeper for a silk manufacturer and married her boss. About ten years later her husband died and they hired another chief accountant whom Adelina also married and who also died making her a rare double-widow. The silk manufacturer made her the chief accountant (a position from which she retired). Adelina has no children and sometimes listens to her old Vynil copy of "Bridge Over Troubled Water", her favorite is "The Boxer".

Shikako and GilRoy

Shikako (sometimes spelled Shikoku) and GilRoy live in Osaka where she is a sound technician for a local TV station and he is a relief pitcher for the Hokushin Tigers, in the Nipon Baseball League. We met in the church "Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri". The trip to Rome is a prize of a contest; Shikako scratched the winning numbers on a specially marked box of instant noodles. They plan to marry, buy a farm, have kids and name their first born boy Romulusus

Helmut Gänser

Helmut Gänser, from Mainz, had her gender reassignment operation at the age of 23. We met in the astounding church of Santa Maria della Pace. Helmut refused to change her first name and was very upset when the German Handball League did not allow her to play in the women's championship, as she already played in the men's competition before. Helmut turned to coaching and took her team to the semifinals of the Europa-Pokal. Her father is a wealthy industrialist who owns the biggest collection of antique beer bottle openers in Germany. Helmut lives in a small apartment with her two cats Carlo and Goldoni.

Min Jhiu

Min Jhiu is from San Clemente, CA, where she made the all-state basketball team last year as a point-guard. We met in the church of Sant'Agnese in Agone. Unfortunately, Min did not enjoy the effervescent Baroque of the church as she had to handle a personal crisis: her team-mate and best friend, Luisa Miller, is pregnant and badly needs her advice, guidance, and support. The roaming charges for this week were $285.92 - but, hey: she's her BFF in need!

Paolo Rosso

Paolo Rosso is a clerk at the Italian Central Customs and Excise Office in Rome but his real passion is painting ... his artist friends call him Douanier (get it?). I met Paolo in the 63 bus close to Via Ruggero Giovannelli where he lives in a big apartment with his mom Alma. Alma adores Paolo and makes his coffee every morning, she also fights off with ferocious jealousy any girlfriend Paolo brings home. Paolo was the first in his high school class to sleep with two different girls within 24 hours. He sold, so far, two paintings ... both jungle landscapes with wild animals

Fabrizio Nazzini

This is Fabrizio Nazzini and his wife Francesca. We met on the bus 310 to Termini. When Fabrizio wrote his 1980 novel "Luce degli Fiori" (published in English by Knopf as "The Lightness of Flowers"), Moravia called him the new, young, strong voice of Italian literature and his cousin called him for a loan. Fabrizio did no write anything since and Francesca supports him by teaching high school Italian to kids who don't really care. Francesca was born in Volterra, lived in Rome for 37 years and hates it!

Pilar

This is Pilar, her full name is Maria Emilia Ortona Pilar de Astha y de Aya. I met her at the Via Cesare Battista 6 Carabinieri Police station where she reported that someone had stolen her purse with all her money, cards and documents. Pilar is a researcher of early music at the University of Valladolid and was still very happy that her request to see Palestrina's early draft for "Stabat Mater", at the Vatican Library was approved. She never found her purse, but her friend Gianni took Pilar to Roscioli's for some Arrabiata and a glass of Chianti.

Mira diNarni

Mira diNarni lives in Rome, she comes from an Italian-Jewish family with roots deep in the Middle Ages. I met Mira at the Palazzo Nuovo relaxing on a break from her stressful job as a coordinator of the Unicorn Project. She placed second in last year's "Pasta Fresca" contest in Orvieto, furious by the jury's visible bias toward the eventual winner, a local music teacher. During the dispute, she broke one of the judge's nose with her fist and served 200 hours of community service. Mira frequently self-medicates with Valium and Vodka.

Jan Llewellyn

This is Jan Llewellyn from the small Welsh village of Abergwyngregyn where they make the Violet Liqueur using violets that grow in a purple blanket along the Menai Strait, the waters that separate Anglesey from Wales. After high school, instead of going into the distillery family business, Jan borrowed some money from his uncle Peter, a successful physiologist, and in a bold move gambled it on buying up 72% of the world's Strontium supply. When, a few weeks later, the price of Strontium popped, Jan made out like a bandit. He now travels the world in search of his true love.

Felipe (Pepe) Ochoa

This is Felipe Ochoa from Albolote, near Granada. He came to Florence to see where they invented the Renaissance and has a great time, seeing, learning and enjoying the city. What Pepe does not know yet is that tomorrow night, in a small cafe by the Piazza San Francesco di Paola, he will meet an extremely cute redhead by the name of Martine. He will take her to dinner and she will take him to her place. When they start kissing and taking off their clothes, Martine's huge cousin Gaston will burst through the door and beat Pepe up, breaking his nose and two small bones in his cheek. Gaston will take Pepe's gold watch and his wallet with 385 Euros in cash. Pepe will make it eventually to a police station, just in his underwear and socks to learn, much to his surprise, that Martine has filed attempted rape charges against him. Gaston is the witness.

Connie and Percy

This is Connie and Percy McKnelly from Swindon. He has a degree in Comparative Linguistic and she is a noted cartographer who published a monograph on the Piri Reis Map. Percy makes a little bit of money writing a sarcastic community column for the "Swindon Advertiser". They travel a lot and spend a lot on books. When they were young they dreamt of fortune and fame in their respective fields, now they play bridge competitively and made it to Life-Masters. A year and a half ago they traveled to Anaheim to an ACBL pairs event, on the night of the opening session, they left their hotel and started walking to the Convention Centre. On the way, they saw a newly opened "Wolfgang Puck" advertising two-for-one Sushi and two-for-one Martinis (never in a million years in Swindon). They went in to take a look and, next thing they saw: staff was putting chairs on tables, it was eleven thirty, they were drunk and missed their game.

Molly Bloom

This is Molly Bloom; she enjoys today a lunch of Gorgonzola sandwich with a glass of Burgundy. Her husband is somewhere else. It is known that her husband is a great navigator, what is not known is that he discovered the exact geographical location of "Somewhere Else" ... and went there. He is not expected back home until midnight ... so Molly is with somebody else

Adriana-Elene

Adriana-Elena Zelena is a garden designer from Prague. We met at the Palazzo Altemps, at a temporary exhibition. Her perfect retroussé nose took three very painful and very expensive operations. Her favorite track is Io-De-Mah-Ham by the Israeli heavy metal band The Ha-Ham. Adriana is currently just one exam away from being certified as a Peripontrologist IV.

Luciana

Luciana came from Ancona to visit her aunt in Rome, we met in the #19 streetcar, on Via Liege. Luciana is a blues singer citing her major influences as Etta James and Nina Simone. We had a great time!